FBI’s Heart of America RCFL Electronic Case File System

About

Established in 2002, HA-RCFL is the premier computer forensics laboratory in the country, providing full service forensics laboratories and training in the digital evidence examination in support of criminal investigations. HA-RCFL focuses primarily on the evidence examination of terrorism, child pornography, crimes of violence, trade secret theft, theft or destruction to intellectual property, financial crime, property crime, Internet crimes, and fraud. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies combine to form several HA-RCFL locations throughout the country.

Client Requirements

Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (HA-RCFL), a sector of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), partnered with AllofE Solutions, a leading research and development firm providing customized web-based management products, to design, develop, and implement an Electronic Cases File System for its case management processing needs.

Solution

AllofE developed a custom solution to meet HA-RCFL’s case management needs. The system architecture supports HA-RCFL’s existing workflow for cases and utilizes existing case forms to customize the new and distinctive case management system. HA-RCFL required a user-friendly product to locate case listing, case details, and client documentation/forms electronically. The case management application features filters and a detailed structure to allow information retrieval in only a few clicks, where relevant information pre-populates case details with existing data elements. The case management system also includes the conversion and upload of cases into PDF files for e-mailing, printing and archiving purposes. Upon closure of a case, all documents that currently exist in the case are combined or “rolled” into a single PDF document, a header page is added, and the file is cryptographically hashed and digitally signed. The project also involves integration with the existing Evidence Control Database.